Being a pioneering educator and prominent figure in the contemporary Indian education space, Rajiv Kacholia has got immense experience and expertise in mentoring and teaching. As the President of the Board of Trustees of the American School of Bombay, and a Leadership Team Member of Stanford University's India undergraduate applicant interview process, Rajiv has acquired in-depth understanding about the strong points and limitations of the Indian education system. In this exclusive interaction with Rohan A T, Content Writer, Higher Education Review magazine, Rajiv Kacholia, Founder of Speech and Debate India gives detailed insight into his opinions on the current state of Indian education and his thoughts on how to improve and nurture essential skills and creativity among students.

• What is your opinion on the current education scenario in India? What are the pain points that you see which are plaguing the sector?

The NEP that the government has released recently is a strong step in the right direction and this has various commonalities with the education system in the US. So, the greater emphasis on skills that are going to be in long term demand for kids and the increased focus on developing critical thinking and building other life skills are a welcome change. In terms of challenges, one of the most important one is how do you retrain teachers across the country to help them step into this enhanced role where they are not just teaching a particular subject but they are preparing kids to be able to distinguish their own perspectives and think deeply on particular topics. So, one of the most important challenge is to retrain teachers and faculties across the country. Infrastructure is another area that can be improved and if both of these are done properly there is room for immense growth. The NEP that the government has put forward has incredible vision and if the majority of these measures put forward are implemented then it will bring revolutionary changes in the long term.

• According to you what will be the role of teachers in the successful implementation of NEP within India?

Teachers are the core and you can’t have an education system without teachers who are able to impart learning to students. In an education system, everything else needs support from teachers whether it is the implementation of new technology or further enhancements made to improve the system. So, ultimately education happens when a teacher interacts with the students and equipping those teachers to impart quality education is very important because they will continue to be the core of education. The main challenge in here will be training teachers to change from the methodologies in which they were taught. So serious effort should be made to start with the basics and retrain them in a creative way to open up their views on how students can be taught and for exposing them to certain modern pedagogies to make learning fun for kids. Teachers have to really rethink and give importance to how they can make education fun because if kids are having fun while learning they are going to learn a lot more. So, teachers have to think about modern pedagogies and how they can make the whole learning experience fun for kids which is not an easy task but that can go a long way in making a successful education system.

• Teachers have been a constant source of motivation for students since their childhood. Can you share some of the teachers that have inspired you?

I grew up in the US and I can speak about one particular teacher, Mr. Terry Cox who taught history in high school and he is one of the greatest teachers that I have ever had. He really made you think deeply about the topic and his classes were not about learning basic facts or chronology and for him that was of less importance. His focus was on diving deep into a particular topic and we would spend weeks and weeks on some topics to understand what key decision makers were thinking through various events and what were the reactions from the military, politicians and general public on these decisions. This helped us think critically about various issues and topics, so that was something I really appreciated as a kid and as I said before, I think he is one of the greatest teachers I have ever had. I also had various professors at Stanford University who were incredible teachers and they went beyond the classroom lectures on explaining particular topics and it was more of getting you to learn how to think. If teachers can help you learn how to think then they have really done their job and equipped you with the ability to learn anything in the future. Most of the things that you learn at school are not directly applicable in real life so you are always learning and schools should prepare you for facing the future.

• According to you, what are the essential qualities needed to be an ideal ‘Guru’ in this modern world? What are the measures taken by your teachers to improve the education scenario in the country?

What is essential for teachers is to have the ability to motivate kids and make them engaged so that they will have fun while learning. So, they are thinking and not just memorizing things and not just learning facts but understanding the topics on a much deeper level. What has been lacking in the traditional educational system is the inability to really engage or involve students in the learning process. This might have worked previously but that is not what the world is about today and that is not the direction the world is moving in. We have to bring students into the front of the learning experience but still, many teachers are finding it hard to engage students with meaningful discussions. Our approach of teaching in India is focused on students and our entire culture is based on student-centered learning. Our teachers don’t just offer lectures but they discuss and debate with students and our focus is to develop skills that are relevant along with helping students to develop their creativity. The industry is giving importance on the ability of an individual to think critically and how they can collaborate with other individuals rather than judging them on their ability to memorize facts. Good training from an early age will help students to become very good collaborators and become leaders with the ability to take decisions. If students are not able to develop critical thinking from an early age it becomes very difficult later on so this is what we focus on.

• What are the changes that you wish to see in the Indian teaching style? How can the teachers establish better rapport with the students?

Teaching styles need to completely change and the traditional style is essential boring for kids and if learning is not fun, kids are not going to learn as well as they should be. Kids have an enormous ability and potential to learn and it is up to teachers to really build on that to make learning fun. Teachers need to be completely retrained and reequip their own tools and pedagogies in order to impart that kind of fun learning experience for kids. Children should be loving each one of their classes and be engaged in class so that they are learning and they are able to build on that and be self-motivated to learn. What you want to develop is a child that can learn long term on their own. I think teachers do already have a good rapport with students and most teacher seem to be pretty talented in creating a strong relationship with kids. So, I don’t think that is an issue but I feel that the bigger hurdle is to retrain a teacher who grew up themselves in a very antiquated traditional type of education.

• What has been your constant source of motivation? What would be your message to the young learners of today?

For me the motivation for working in India was to give students a better learning experience. We want to give them the confidence to speak up and also to help them develop a balanced perspective because too many young kids tend to have firm opinions and we want to help them find a middle ground so that they have a successful future and fruitful career. The second factor is to nurture creativity with creativity is a skill that every one of us has inherently. Babies are very creative, young kids are highly creative and this has been proven with academic studies. What happens is over time traditional education systems chips away at that creativity and it doesn’t foster creativity so that by the time kids get in to middle school, most kids have lost their creative edge. In high schools very few kids have this creative edge and by the time they are adults and they are in college, hardly any adults are at that level of creativity that they could have been if their creativity was being nurtured. We go from 98 percent kids at the age of five who are creative to 2 percent of adults who have that creative edge. Large part of this is because of way the how the education system is setup. So, one of my big driving factors was to develop a creative outlet so that young kids can continue to build and hold onto that creativity and this is one of the key areas that we focus on. To the young learners of today, I would tell them to learn to have fun and learn in a way that is fun for you.

Learning should not be a chore that one doesn’t want to do. So, explore areas that you are passionate about and follow your passion so that learning becomes a fun aspect. Whether it is engineering to humanities or anywhere else in between it is really for the child to explore the areas that they are passionate about and if they can focus on an area that they love, they will become great learners. If you are learning about a subject that you are interested about, you are going to be stronger learners and this will help you to achieve key skills in the future in the individual areas that you are learning about.

(Covered by Rohan A T)